The initial sign that the Vikings’ fortunes this season would be very different from a year ago came 5 minutes, 43 seconds into their regular-season opener against Green Bay.
The Packers got the ball at their own 25-yard line after the Vikings scored a touchdown on a 10-play, 78-yard drive on the opening possession. Green Bay saw an opportunity to tie it quickly as Aaron Rodgers launched a deep pass down the right side for rookie wide receiver Christian Watson. Watson had gotten behind veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson and would have scored easily — if he had caught that perfectly thrown ball.
Instead it went through his hands at the Minnesota 31 for an incompletion and the Packers ended up punting in a 23-7 loss at U.S. Bank Stadium.
The sign this provided ran deeper than a simple incompletion. For a Vikings fan base that spends much of its time fearing the worst, Watson catching the ball would have been even more traumatic. That’s because Watson had been selected with an early pick in the second round that Green Bay obtained in a draft-weekend trade from the Vikings.
Nonetheless, at the time it appeared to be a lucky break. Nearly four months later, it’s clear it was much more. The NFL is a flawed and weird league in which there are very few dominant teams and a combination of luck, skill and good timing is needed for success.
Turns out Watson’s drop was the first indication these Vikings would be very different from the Mike Zimmer-led teams that missed the playoffs the past two seasons. First-year coach Kevin O’Connell and his team have defied so many of the analytics and traditional statistics that scream the Vikings should be an average to slightly above average team.
But the Vikings will play their penultimate game of the regular season Sunday at Lambeau Field with a 12-3 record, the NFC North already wrapped up and a chance to strengthen their hold on the second seed in the conference. That first win over the Packers is the only one for the Vikings that didn’t come by one score.
Sunday’s game will come one day short of it being exactly a year since the Vikings visited Lambeau. If there was any question about the decision to replace Zimmer as coach, the move became a certainty after a 37-10 loss to the Packers that ended Minnesota’s playoff chances.
While the Packers had clinched their third consecutive NFC North title, the Vikings had to watch Sean Mannion start at quarterback after Kirk Cousins was placed on the COVD-19 list two days before the game. In many ways that game perfectly summarized the Vikings’ miserable 7-9 season in which they tied an NFL record by playing in 14 one-score games but only won six of them.
There had been fear since training camp that Cousins’ decision not to get the COVID vaccination would sideline the quarterback at the worst possible time and that turned out to be the case. Mannion had missed time on the COVID list during the week and looked awful. Kellen Mond, a third-round pick in 2021, got a chance and also struggled.
After the game Zimmer was asked if he wanted to see Mond play in the regular-season finale against the Bears? “Not particularly,” he responded. Why? “I see him everyday.”
Cousins, whose only other missed start since joining the Vikings in 2018 came because Minnesota had its playoff position clinched in 2019, watched his team lose on television. “It was hard because Sean was out with COVID all week of practice, so he’s going in to start the game and he hadn’t gotten the chance to really practice either,” Cousins said. “It was just a difficult time and kind of, was really part of a difficult couple of years around that.”
Those difficult years are now a memory. Cousins has tied the NFL record by leading eight fourth-quarterback comebacks this season under O’Connell and the misery of 2020 and ’21 has given way to a far more upbeat coach and team atmosphere in 2022.
What could make this season even more enjoyable?
A victory over the Packers. That would return the favor of last season by all but ending Green Bay’s playoff hopes. A Packers (7-8) win improves their postseason chances to 56 percent, a loss drops those odds to 2 percent. The Vikings also are looking to sweep Green Bay for the first time since the 2017 season.
The fact the Vikings could pretty much put a dagger in the Packers’ season by doing so would only make it that much sweeter.
